Karnataka: Ghee, butter and paneer to cost more from November 5 as BAMUL raises prices

Consumers across Karnataka will pay more for ghee, butter and paneer from November 5 after the Bangalore Urban, Rural and Ramanagara District Co-operative Milk Producers Societies Union Limited (BAMUL) revised its price list. The new rates, released on November 4, come days after the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) raised the prices of milk and curd by upwards of ₹8 per litre.

Under the revised list, a one-litre ghee sachet, earlier priced at ₹715, will now cost ₹850 — an increase of ₹135. A one-litre ghee pet jar has moved from ₹735 to ₹870, and a one-litre ghee tin from ₹750 to ₹870, a rise of ₹120.

Bulk packs show sharper increases in absolute terms. A five-litre ghee pack will cost ₹4,250 instead of ₹3,575, and a 15-litre tin ₹14,000 instead of ₹11,625 — ₹2,375 more per tin.

In butter, a 500 gm salted pack has been revised from ₹310 to ₹380, while the unsalted pack moves from ₹330 to ₹390. The revised list also shows a 100 gm butter blister pack moving from ₹600 to ₹900.

Paneer prices have been raised as well. A 200 gm pack will now cost ₹115, up from ₹96, an increase of ₹19. The one-kg pack has been revised from ₹480 to ₹485. The price list does not explain why the larger pack shows only a marginal increase while the smaller one rose by nearly a fifth.

This is the second revision in recent months. The prices were last revised in July, when they were raised by 10%. The latest round follows the KMF's decision to increase milk and curd prices, a move that directly affects households and food businesses for which dairy is a daily input.

P.C. Rao, honorary president of the Bangalore Hotels Association, criticised the revision. “This was expected, but it is a huge financial burden on the hotel industry,” he said, adding that milk, curd, paneer, ghee and butter together place an additional burden of about 25% on costs.

Dairy cooperatives generally link such revisions to the procurement prices paid to milk producers and to processing, packaging and transport costs. The announcement on Monday did not set out the specific reasons for this round of increases.

BAMUL is one of the district milk unions in Karnataka's cooperative dairy structure, which the KMF coordinates and which markets its products under the Nandini brand. Price decisions by the federation and its unions are closely watched in the State, where milk is among the most widely purchased kitchen staples and where lakhs of dairy farmers depend on cooperative procurement.

For households, the increases arrive in quick succession: milk and curd turned costlier earlier this month, and ghee, butter and paneer now follow. The changes also matter for restaurants, sweet shops and caterers, which use these products in bulk and pass input costs on to customers. Industry representatives have said the cumulative effect on food businesses will need to be absorbed or adjusted in menu pricing.

The revised rates apply across Karnataka from November 5.